November 20, 2007
Why Public Denials May Only Fuel Conspiracy Theories
John Allen Paulos in his Who's Counting column at ABC News:
Iraq and 9/11, sex trafficking, flu vaccines, widespread autism. Cognitive biases color our view of these and other issues and can affect our policy choices.
Because they are well-, but not widely understood, I'd like to briefly mention three of the most common ones and some related new and troubling research about denials.
First the biases.
Three Common Psychological Biases
1. The "availability heuristic" is the pronounced tendency of people to view any story through the lens of a superficially similar story that comes easily to mind or is psychologically available. For this reason, much of politics revolves around strengthening this tendency by keeping a preferred narrative uppermost in people's minds. It doesn't take too keen a political instinct, for example, to realize that some politicians' incessant invoking of 9/11 is an effort to keep it psychologically available, to help it color every aspect of the political agenda.
More here.
Posted by Abbas Raza at 02:50 AM | Permalink
Comments
LBJ understood this intuitively, as in the early election contest where he was trailing a few points in the polls and ordered his manager to spread the rumor that his opponent had had carnal relations with a pig (or a goat, the story varies).
"Lyndon, you know that ain't true!" the manager wailed.
"I don't care if it's true," LBJ explained; "I just want to make the S.O.B. deny it."
Posted by: Anderson | Nov 20, 2007 10:15:53 AM
Thanks Abbas. First, for the article itself. People involved in trying to debunk some silly (and sadly influential) popular myths often look at their opponent's argument more than they do the structure of their response and how that response will be understood. This article clearly points out the common features and framing of mass media "debates".
Secondly, John Allen Paulos is a very interesting writer and thanks for this introduction.
Posted by: Pete Chapman | Nov 20, 2007 1:56:16 PM
Paulos is joining the river of atheist writings, hooray!
Posted by: beajerry | Nov 21, 2007 10:01:51 AM
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